MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Charges have been dropped against a woman in South Florida whose arrest for video recording a traffic stop caused a local police department to pause enforcing an ordinance that critics said allowed officers to arrest people for filming them.
The prosecutor for Miami Beach on Thursday dropped the case against Mariyah Maple, 27, who was arrested in July after she had been recording a traffic stop.
The New York woman was one of over a dozen people arrested in July under a new ordinance touted to protect police officers from belligerent crowds but criticized as a way for cops to crack down on people lawfully recording them.
The Miami Herald obtained video that showed Maple’s arrest report depicted a significantly different version of what video showed happened during her arrest. Of the 13 people arrested under the ordinance, all were Black, and most involved people filming police, according to the Herald.
After the Herald reported on the arrest, as well as other allegations of excessive force, the Miami Beach police said it would pause enforcing the ordinance.
The ordinance passed in June made it illegal to “approach or remain within 20 feet” of a city police officer, with the “intent to impede, provoke or harass” an officer engaged in lawful duties, after receiving a warning. Miami Beach officials and the city’s police union said it was needed to protect officers from the raucous crowds that descend each year on South Beach’s famed tourist district during spring break.
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